The Cuban Senators

The piece I posted this morning by Matt Welch about Gov. Schwarzenegger received mixed reviews. But this baseball piece by Welch should be more widely appreciated, especially by baseball fans of a certain age in Washington, D.C. and Minnesota. It deals with the Cubans who played for the Washington Senators (and in many cases, the Minnesota Twins after the Senators began their 43-year road trip). The focus is on Julio Becquer, but the piece also discusses Pedro Ramos, Camilo Pascual, and a host of others. Even Calvin Griffith gets some rare favorable treatment.
By the way, I was sad to hear this morning that Earl Battey, one of my favorite ex-Senators and the catcher for the 1965 pennant-winning Twins, just passed away. Battey was one of the best defensive catchers I’ve ever seen, and probably ran a close second to Elston Howard as the best overall Amercan League catcher of the first half of the 1960s.

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